8 Important Segments Of Testing eCommerce Websites – Idexcel Testing Roundup

1. 8 Important Segments Of Testing eCommerce Websites

In today’s world, I bet you won’t find anyone who hasn’t shopped online. E-commerce/Retail is a business that thrives on its online customers. Shopping in person vs. shopping online has many advantages. Convenience, time-saving and easy access to products worldwide, etc.

A good E-commerce/Retail site is key to its success. It must be a worthy counterpart to the storefront. Because, when you go shopping at a physical store, the customer has already made a commitment to visit and might give the brand a chance.

Online, choices are many. So, unless there is engagement from the beginning, the user might just leave. Continue reading…

2. Learn Agile Techniques to Become a More Valuable Teste

Are you an agile tester? Soon, there will not be a distinction; just being in the tester role will mean you need to have agile experience.

The World Quality Report 2015–16 says the strategic role of QA and testing is growing in tandem with the increase in adoption of agile and DevOps delivery. Agile continues to be on the rise, with many organizations that have been successful at the team level looking to scale their adoption. How many of you testers are able to state that you have practical application of agile techniques? Continue reading…

3. Planning for Mobile Testing Challenges

When you develop applications, it is hard to ignore mobile devices. Testing mobile applications provides however some additional challenges than don’t exist for desktop or web applications. In this article, Kostyantyn Kharchenko explains some of the specific challenges that you should include in your mobile testing plans. Continue reading…

4. Destructive Software Testing – Bringing Beta Testing To Your Desk

The earlier a bug is fixed the cheaper it is for your company to fix it, right?
One amongst many reasons, it helps to set a good reputation for your product, and that’s what all of us want. So we have trained testers to catch those bugs as earlier as possible. Continue reading…

STAREAST Software Testing Conference – May 1-6, 2016 – Orlando, FL USA

Date : May 1–6, 2016

Location : Orlando, FL

Venue : Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld®

The Premier Event for Software Testing and QA Professionals

STAREAST is one of the longest-running, and most respected conferences on software testing and quality assurance. The event week features over 100 learning and networking opportunities and covers a wide variety of some of the most in-demand topics.

• Test Management
• Test Techniques
• Test Automation
• Agile Testing
• DevOps & Testing
• Testing the Internet of Things
• Mobile Testing
• Testing Metrics
• Cloud Testing
• Performance Testing

[Know more about the Conference]

6 Questions To Ask Before Releasing Software – Idexcel Testing Roundup

1. 6 Questions To Ask Before Releasing Software

Your team has been working hard, iterating on designs, and spending countless hours developing new features. The day has come and they’re finally ready to ship. But are things really ready?

How do you know when the software is ready to be released? Who gives the final thumbs up? And what exactly needs to be done prior to the release?

Just as you’re always working to improve your product, you should always be working to improve and optimize your release process. [Continue Reading…]

2. What is a QA Engineer?

ou may have noticed on your neighborhood software development team a few people where coding the product isn’t their main role. They aren’t artists, so you know they aren’t web designers on the User Experience team designing the user interface. They don’t usually gather the initial business requirements, so they aren’t business analysts. And every other word they talk about contains the word “test”: Test Matrix, browser testing, test strategies, test cases, test scripts, regression testing.

They are the Software Quality Assurance Engineers. [Continue Reading…]

3. Where Do Software Bugs Come From?

I was discussing the new program to guarantee bug-free software with a friend, an agile coach I respect. He pointed out that there are basically two places bugs come from: either a programmer screwed up, or there are missing, misunderstood, or misinterpreted requirements. According to my friend, the first group can be driven to near zero with modern techniques, while the second is “always ten years away.” [Continue Reading…]

4. 10 Critical Activities to Test Security of Mobile Applications

3G and 4G network enabled smart phones are today being used more and more for accessing the Internet, for performing financial, business, and social transactions, and for media consumption. However, the safety of the data being consumed by the end user using the apps distributed via mobile application stores, poses a big security issue.

To add to this, Gartner predicts that almost 25% of organizations will launch their own apps by 2017. [Continue Reading…]

The Software Testing Wheel – Idexcel Testing Roundup

1. The Software Testing Wheel

The Agile Zone is brought to you in partnership with JetBrains. Discover how to increase change awareness, code quality, and maintainability through straightforward code reviews, with a simple, lightweight workflow.
We made a software testing wheel to answer these questions based on the ISO standard for software product quality. It concludes that the quality of a software product is the weighted sum of different quality attributes which are grouped up into several quality factors. For example, performance efficiency is a factor that is composed of time behavior, capacity, resource consumption, etc. [Continue Reading…]

2. Top 13 Tips for Writing Effective Test Cases for Any Application

Test cases are very important for any project as this is the first step in any testing cycle, and if anything goes wrong at this step, the impacts get extrapolated as you move forward in the software testing life-cycle.

Knowing how to write good test cases is extremely important for you as a testing resource and believe you me, it doesn’t take too much of your effort and time!

You just need to follow certain guidelines while writing test cases or as they call it – follow “test case writing best practices.”

In this article, I am going to talk about some simple yet effective tips which you could use for writing effective test cases. [Continue Reading…]

3. Software Testing is Monotonous… Oh Really?

Sunny afternoon, an IT company, two testers at the vending machine –

Tester 1: This job sucks. For a whole day, I keep executing the same test cases that I did yesterday and still most of them are failing. The product manager is not happy with me because test cases are failing and I am clueless about what to do.

Tester 2: I agree. I am facing same problem too. I do not find anything new to do. I am expected to write test cases every day and whenever I present new ideas, they get rejected with different excuses.

Tester 1: I am searching for a new job, which would give me an opportunity to grow and explore… … …. [Continue Reading…]

4. What Flaky Tests Can Tell You

Imagine this: You are a programming tester who creates automated end-to-end tests for a web application. You use good, modern technology—say, Selenium WebDriver. You consider code a thing of craft, using page objects to separate the tests from application logic. You make use of virtualization and use adequately powered machine hardware. You also understand how end-to-end automation is a team effort, so you work with application developers, testers, and managers in concert to get the most value out of your work. And yet for all your good work, you still have a recurring problem: flaky tests.

These are tests that pass or fail unexpectedly for reasons that appear random. Flaky tests become even worse as test suites grow and more areas of an application are covered. Eventually there comes a temptation to throw up your hands, yell, “This is stupid!” and throw the whole end-to-end test suite into the trash bin.

But are flaky tests really a problem? [Continue Reading…]

5. Discussion: How to differentiate myself from other Testers in the team?

I am responsible for testing an enterprise web application, what other things of high value can a tester do to stand out of the crowd. Apart from obvious activities like test data creation, test case execution, bug reports…what other initiatives can a QA engineer , take which will help raise his value to the project/Client.

This might seems like a subjective question, but i need valuable advice..that i will definitely try out in my project and see if its bringing more value and making me more productive. [Share your suggestions here!]

Latest Trends in Software Testing 2015 – Idexcel Testing Roundup

1. Latest Trends in Software Testing 2015 – How the World Tests?

Software testing techniques, methodologies and tools are always changing.

Blame the emerging technologies and new platforms or accuse the advancement of new devices!

Truth of the matter is, businesses around the world are transforming and so are their IT systems and software testing world is not immune to this phenomenon.

Zephyr conducts an annual survey wherein 6000+ of its customers in 100 countries take part to answer some interesting questions to prepare a report. [Continue Reading…]

2. How Do We Sell the “Test Early” Principle?

Deliver just enough, focus on a minimum viable product, test early, test often, drive testing to the left, build quality in, prevent defects from occurring—these are all sound bites that communicate the need and intention of “building the right thing right.” But goals and principles are always easier to articulate than they are to actually implement.

I’m often asked, How do we convince our key stakeholders that testing earlier and at lower levels in the system or application is beneficial? Usually there are three camps in this regard: [Continue Reading…]

3. 7 Performance Testing Fallacies Undermining Your Test Strategy

When you do the same thing many times, you can start to make false assumptions about your work process—and testing is no exception. Sofía Palamarchuk discusses some common fallacies about performance tests specifically, and how they can end up costing testers and developers significantly more than they should.

It’s always interesting to find out the many ways in which we can be wrong. In his book Perfect Software and Other Illusions about Testing, Jerry Weinberg explained a number of fallacies regarding testing in general. Here, I’m going to discuss some that relate specifically to performance tests—and how they can end up costing testers and developers significantly more money down the line. [Continue Reading…]

4. Discussion: How did you “fall” into testing?

I was wondering how you “fell” into testing? I haven’t met anyone who started out wanting to be in QA, they just fell into it!

I’ll start, my SO has been a test manager for the better part of two decades, and the company she was working for had an opening. I used to be a forklift mechanic and it never occurred to me that I could be in QA. My SO, however, fell into QA from her accounting job to test a new account management system as she kept breaking the current system in use.

So what’s your story?

Was software testing a chosen path, or did you too “fall” into software testing? [Share your stories here!]

Best Practices for Mobile App Testing

Any application software developed for mobile should be tested for its correct functioning, user friendly approach and consistency. Testing could be either manual or automated. Ever since smart phones came in to use, more than 2 million Apps have become available for downloading. We have Apps for music, games, financial transactions, ticket booking, ordering food, social networking and so many more categories, and the number is still growing. As these apps are invading into our personal and professional lives, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that these Apps are trustworthy, useful, easy to use and well developed by following certain techniques and best practices to test any mobile application.

A comprehensive testing strategy with specified guidelines for all testers should be devised so as to bring uniformity in testing. Once an App is designed and developed, it should be tested on real devices once it has been tested on emulator and simulator. Testing on real devices ensures realistic results and also the tester can understand the look and feel of the App with its general usability. The App should be tested at different stages of the development. This helps in identifying issues at an early stage, if any. With so many services, networks and operating systems available easily, it becomes an exhausting task to test an app that can meet all the criterion. It is essential to determine the devices and operating systems that the App caters to, and then perform tests on them. At any time, automated testing is better than manual testing as it saves time and can be used repeatedly. As an app gets more complex, repeatedly testing them for bugs becomes difficult. Hence certain software have been developed that take care of the testing. Software such as Monkey runner and Robotium automate the entire testing process.

One of the biggest challenges in the world of mobile app users is the high user expectations. It is better to know target groups and their expectations. Once user preferences have been identified, it becomes easier to decide the testing devices. To achieve this, we can conduct market research, use mobile app statistics and interview customers. Based on this information, different groups can be created based on the priorities. One group may require latest testing devices and another may require fewer. The functioning of mobile apps in various types of data networks should be tested. The app should be able to work with different network speeds and handle network transitions. For example, 3G or Wi-Fi is comparatively faster than a data network like EDGE. The app should be capable of a smooth transition from 3G to EDGE, depending on the availability.

It is advisable to start testing during the development stage itself as it reduces the cost of fixing it. Early detection and fixing of bugs ensures that the problem does not magnify later. And testing should be carried out often because with every small development in the app, it is essential to ensure that everything works as expected according to the new changes.

The app must also be tested for various languages across the globe along with popular social networking sites and markets because they can significantly impact the layout. Hence it must be addressed at the beginning of the development process. Most of the modern phones are equipped with different hardware and sensors. The app should function against sensor specific scenarios and hardware. For example, if the mobile app takes a picture, it should handle picture resolutions, sizes and uploading photos to the server. It is important to check how much battery is consumed by the app. Chances of an app that consumes more battery getting deleted is higher.

It is necessary to test the app’s installation and update processes. During install and uninstall tests, app testers have to look for crashes or any other problems that might occur. After uninstalling an app, the phone storage should be checked to ensure that all app data has been removed. The usability of an app has to be constantly tested. All UI elements must be easy to use and understand. The app must provide clear explanatory text and error messages. In case of an error situation, the app should guide the user how to resolve the problem in the app. During development and testing phase, app testers need to verify that the app uses only permissions that the app requires. Mobile users who are sensitive about private data are unlikely to install any app that is unclear about permission requirements.

In conclusion, for any mobile app to be successful, it must undergo complete and accurate testing. It has to rise above the challenges and deliver high performance under varying conditions of usage.

Mobile application manual testing Process in real time:

• App should be tested on all types of mobile networks (ex:2G,3G,4G,LTE,and Wifi)
• App should be tested on different OS environments like iOS (iPhone and iTab), Android (mobiles &Tab) and Windows OS enabled mobile.
• Automatic updates suggestions/Alerts should be available whenever there is new features/updates done on App.
• Tester needs to uninstall the old version of app and install new version of App on mobile to test new version
• Make sure that app screen should be auto fit to any size screens of mobile device (3 inches to latest 5.5 inches screen)
• Make sure that GUI is as per the requirement specification .It should be user friendly.

Mobile application automation testing Process in real time:

Pre-requisite for automation: App must be tested manually and should be stable.

• All the above scenarios can be tested using automation except for the GUI testing.
• Monkey talk, Selendriod plug-inns are used to test Android apps along with Selenium tool.
• Appium plug-inns are used to test iOS apps along with Selenium tool.
• Automation tool should capture all the gestures available from smart phones like tapping ,pinching, scroll-down ,scroll-up etc.,
• Tool should have capabilities to automate functional testing and non functional testing for the App.
• Different tools like HP UFT, Telerik test Studio Complete, Selenium etc., are available in the market to automate Mobile apps.

Testing Wearables: The Human Experience – Testing Roundup

1. Testing Wearables: The Human Experience

When a networked device is physically attached to us and works with us and through us, the more personal, even emotional, the interaction is. With wearables, the user becomes a part of the Internet of Things. Gerie Owen realized that consequently, a human user must be an integral part of testing wearables. Here, she details this human experience testing.

In the 2011 Boston Marathon, everyone running had a wearable attached to their clothing. In the race bib with their name and registration number, there was also an RFID, or radio-frequency identification, chip, which recorded the runner’s exact race time by detecting when the runner crossed the start and finish lines.

The first time this system was tried, there was only one glitch: not all the RFID chips registered with the readers. As a tester I found this fascinating, but the Boston situation was personal—I was in the race. [Continue Reading…]

2. Where Are All the Great Software Testers?

Due to the critical nature of software in our lives, we’re all aware of the need for more software testing expertise. The good news is that the IT industry continues to need skilled software testing roles; the downside for hiring managers is that those with deep experience in software testing are becoming more difficult to find.

A few people have inquired about how to find great software testers—in particular, more senior software engineers who can effectively carry out roles such as test architect, senior test automator, or senior test designer. [Continue Reading…]

3. It’s Time We Get Our Dues!

When a software product is a success – the developers get the glory and when it fails – the testers get the blame! That’s the unfair story of a test professional’s life. It’s kind of weird that even when from an end user perspective quality of the product matters the most, software quality professionals are so many times referred to as the “poorer cousins” of developers. I have been at the brunt of this discrimination from some of my “coding genius” friends as well colleagues, even if it was in the form of humour. But on a serious note this really is the mentality that exists across the industry. [Continue Reading…]

4. Discussion: Things Testers Say or Hear a Lot?

Just a bit of fun…what do testers hear or say alot?

So far, I’ve had:

‘Hmmm, strange’

‘I hadn’t looked at it that way’

‘If the business is going to do that, I can’t provide assurance of the quality of your code’

‘whoa’ (Keanu Reeves finds a bug)

Have anything to contribute? [Respond here!]

The Power of Continuous Performance Testing – Idexcel Testing Roundup

1. The Power of Continuous Performance Testing

One of the key tenets of continuous integration is to reduce the time between a change being made and the discovery of defects within that change. “Fail fast” is the mantra we often use to communicate this tenet. This approach provides us with the benefit of allowing our development teams to quickly pinpoint the source of an issue compared to the old method of waiting weeks or months between a development phase and a test phase.

For this approach to work, however, our development and QA teams have to be able to run a consistent suite of automated tests regularly, and these tests must have sufficient coverage to ensure a high likelihood of catching the most critical bugs. If a test suite is too limited in scope, then it misses many important issues; a test suite that takes too long to run will increase the time between the introduction of a defect and our tester raising the issue. This is why we introduce and continue to drive automated testing in our agile environments. Continue reading

2. How to Test an Application without Requirements?

Technically there are no applications without requirements. Imagine software that does nothing specific but is simply line after line of code stretching on. It will be like a stair case leading nowhere.

All software has requirements and is targeted at a particular task; specifically it is a solution to a problem. So requirement-less software isn’t a possibility.

However, software without documented requirements is a reality that unfortunately most of us face more often that we like. The only thing worse could be that, the documentation is insufficient, inaccurate or terribly outdated. Sadly, this happens too. Continue reading

3. Building an Effective Lean Testing Strategy

Organizations are constantly under pressure to streamline their operations and ensure that they are using their assets as effectively as possible. However, this is often easier said than done. For example, if a new vulnerability comes up in an app, more time may be spent fixing the issue than normal due to additional steps required to ensure that the software runs as expected.

To reduce wasted resources, businesses have adopted lean practices that consider the expenditure of assets to be wasteful if they’re used for anything other than creating value for the end customer.

Here are a few strategies quality assurance professionals should concentrate on to implement an effective lean testing strategy. Continue reading

4. Discussion: Taxonomy of Software Testing Terms

If you frequent TEST Huddle, now is the time to provide some feedback. The TEST Huddle team is looking to create a taxonomy of terms which it will use to make resources on the website easily discoverable by relevant subject matter.

“The goal is to create a bank of content that can be efficiently searched by testers trying to solve a particular problem – whether directly related to testing or indirectly e.g. advice from others on managing people; communicating to stakeholders etc.”
Have any terms in mind? Contribute your ideas here!